Quotes of the day

posted at 10:38 pm on April 17, 2012 by Allahpundit

“If the White House gets its political way, ‘trust’ will be a word President Obama and his surrogates use in the next few weeks as often as Obama has talked about ‘fairness,’ and Mitt Romney, once dubbed as hollow to the core, will increasingly be ID’d as a card-carrying ultra-conservative who bobbles into Etch A Sketch moments because his core is causing him problems…

“Romney’s core has been filling in with far-right positions on education, gay marriage, immigration, Afghanistan, Iraq, taxes, the economy, energy and the environment, one of the officials asserted. Those policies, together with Romney’s remarkable degree of secrecy (imagine more quote marks) when it comes to his personal and professional approaches to problem-solving, will poison voters’ trust in the governance Romney would bring to the White House, the officials added.”

“Monday’s eruption of Democratic outrage began when Mr. Romney’s comments about cutting tax deductions and government programs, made at a backyard gathering of donors on Sunday, were reported by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.

“Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Mr. Obama’s campaign, jumped on the comments — overheard by the reporters — in an e-mail just before midnight on Sunday. ‘Apparently Gov. Romney Believes Only High Dollar Donors Have a Right to Know What Programs He Will Cut,’ Mr. LaBolt wrote in his message, sent to political reporters.”

***

“Everyone understands why Republicans are mounting this attack. They are responding to weeks of Democratic charges that they are waging a ‘war on women.’ A recent USA Today/Gallup poll that found Romney losing support among women younger than 50 in swing states has especially alarmed them.

“But what’s mystifying is just which women Republicans are trying to reach. The number of voters who are deeply concerned about the treatment of Democratic women in the White House and will vote for a Republican as a result has to be, as a rough approximation, zero. Ditto for the number of voters who are especially concerned about high gas prices not because they themselves are paying them or because everyone is but because women, as a group, are. I suspect that not many people think that way, and those who do lean pretty strongly Democratic.

“The evidence that Romney is lagging in the polls because voters are upset about a ‘war on women’ — rather than because of a bruisingly negative primary campaign or the recovering economy — is pretty thin. But Republicans are responding not just to the polls but to the persistent mythology of the gender gap.”

***

“I was telling people months ago, back when Mitt Romney still seemed like a strong and resolute candidate who made liberals nervous and led the occasional national general-election poll, that Barack Obama was going to win reelection fairly easily. I still basically think that. But now I’m jumpy because everybody else, and I mean everybody, seems to think this now, too. And I get especially jumpy when I see signs that the Obama campaign is sounding ridiculously overconfident. There’s a line between swagger that keeps the other side on the defensive and swagger that just doesn’t quite sound credible, and I’m hearing a little too much of the latter…

“Here’s another thing I’ve been noticing quietly, which not enough people seem to be focused on. Obama’s fund-raising numbers aren’t really that strong. Sure, on the one hand, it’s an obscene amount of money, $53 million raised in March And it’s far more than Romney has raised. But Obama’s several million behind where he was in 2008, and is probably not on track to raise the $1 billion that some of his people used to brag about. Obama’s own Super-Pac got off to a rocky start. The conservative Super-Pacs, meanwhile, are going to be throwing tens of millions of dollars’ worth of ads on the air in late October and early November. Now I tend to believe that money, even in the form of scorching negative ads, stops making a difference after a certain saturation point has been hit. There is such a thing as overkill, even in politics. But we’ll certainly see a new testing of the boundaries this fall. We can’t discount the possibility, which is real, that anonymous millions might play a big role in deciding this race.”

***

“Now, the president’s likability doesn’t mean Mr. Romney shouldn’t go on the offensive. It does mean he ought to attack hardest where Mr. Obama is at his weakest: his failed policies. For all the carping about Mr. Romney, this part he gets. We can see it reflected in both his embrace of the opportunity-oriented Republicanism of Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan — and his repeated refrain that Mr. Obama is simply ‘in over his head.’

“Mr. Romney is hardly the first Republican presidential aspirant to take that tack against a Democratic incumbent. In 1980, Ronald Reagan zeroed in on Jimmy Carter’s competence. Plenty of Americans thought President Carter was a good and decent man too—but by election day Mr. Reagan had persuaded them that his rival just wasn’t up to the job.

“The day after that election, Mr. Reagan’s pollster, Richard Wirthlin, explained the campaign this way: ‘We saw the opportunity for a role reversal—that is, by the end of the campaign, I think we came very close to having people look upon Ronald Reagan as more presidential than Jimmy Carter.’

“Romney was making an appearance on Breitbart TV and was asked by host Larry O’Connor whether he was ready to take on ‘the media and these nonprofits groups that are working together.’

“‘There will be an effort by the quote vast left wing conspiracy to work together to put out their message and to attack me,’ Romney said in response. ‘They’re going to do everything they can to divert from the message people care about, which is a growing economy that creates more jobs and rising incomes. That’s what people care about.'”

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Quick question. Anyone remember the Taco Bell commercial that ran for a week or two about twenty years ago where Erik Estrada reprising his CHiPs role, would pull over a lady and ask her if she had a license for that taco? Why did they pull the spot so quick?

arnold ziffel on April 18, 2012 at 2:07 AM

Here it is. Pretty obvious double entendre that the agency couldn’t believe got by the client. Until the first airing.

Hell, little Finland put up a bigger fight than the Frogs. Maybe they had performance anxiety.

arnold ziffel on April 18, 2012 at 2:28 AM

Reminds me of a story.

Me and my best friend are in Paris about 15 years ago. We’re on a cruise on the Seine when it starts to drizzle. Everyone on the top deck is cool with it though. It was a warm day, and it was BARELY drizzling.

There’s a group of about a dozen Dane’s in front of us, in town for the Tour de France. About six of them get up, covering their head and run below deck as though they were caught in a deluge.

I chuckled, and my buddy says to me “what did you expect? It took the Danes all of 7 minutes to give it up in WW2.”

The remaining Danes heard him, and they didn’t laugh at him like I did.

Me and my best friend are in Paris about 15 years ago. We’re on a cruise on the Seine when it starts to drizzle. Everyone on the top deck is cool with it though. It was a warm day, and it was BARELY drizzling.

There’s a group of about a dozen Dane’s in front of us, in town for the Tour de France. About six of them get up, covering their head and run below deck as though they were caught in a deluge.

I chuckled, and my buddy says to me “what did you expect? It took the Danes all of 7 minutes to give it up in WW2.”

The remaining Danes heard him, and they didn’t laugh at him like I did.

CycloneCDB on April 18, 2012 at 2:40 AM

I had a friend, that when he was in Paris, tried speaking French to the hotel desk person. The desk person didn’t like his French, so he responded in English. My friend to this as an insult, so he started speaking German. The front desk person, then tried to communicate in French again, my friend just continued to speak in German.

Serious question. Sometimes you get wrapped up in a project and don’t step back. I wonder if the ad agency just didn’t think it through. Although it was filmed in CA where they are not exactly Amish.

arnold ziffel on April 18, 2012 at 2:30 AM

On big budget accounts, like I imagine a heavy tv advertiser like Taco Bell would be, ad concepts are often focus grouped and test-marketed before they ever go into production. They’re story boarded, production designed, no detail is overlooked, and they’re shot right down to the second. Don’t know who the agency was, but the ad likely was conceived in Los Angeles or New York City, shot in L.A., and they probably assumed, in their culture bubble, that the rest of America was ready for it… or wouldn’t believe they were trying to put over something like that and so give them the benefit of the doubt… or it would simply go over their heads. But if it got pulled that fast, the tv stations and network probably got a lot of complaints right away.

Then again, maybe no one thought it through. Although, when you really think about Estrada’s line, in what other way does it even make sense, even as a joke? What might the ad have been trying to say about Taco Bell tacos that they need to be licensed? Because they’re so good and tasty?

Which reminds me, we’ve got a popular taco stand near us, one of a kind, known all over town for its colorado beef stew that’s used in everything they make, about which there are perennial rumors that it’s actually made of… Obama’s famous dish. Right near where they used to shoot a lot of “ChiPs,” too. Maybe THAT’s why Taco Bell pulled the ad.

I think it is about a young man who is conflicted sexually. He sees the Samurai sword as a function of his inability to connect with women. As he ponders whether he fits into a male dominated society, and doesn’t know if he is up to the task he also thinks he might be more comfortable in the role of a subservient Geisha type. In other words his FengShui is effed up. How’s that? :) Should I elaborate?

2) That was me. What would Bishop, the public service union rep. from Minnie soda, know about motorcyling in Arkansas?!?!?!?

Gohawgs on April 18, 2012 at 3:22 AM

You are a good guy with a good sense of humor. My wife has two nice razorback charms for her bracelet and I have an F-16 model of the AR airNG.
Our neighbor graduated from the USAF academy in 2009 and is flying the C-130 out of Little Rock AFB.

When will the brilliant Mitt team figure out how to use these obamanation “gaffes” to their advantage? Shirley, someone on the Mitt staff can poke fun while tying the gaffes to what the obamanation has done to the Country…

When will the brilliant Mitt team figure out how to use these obamanation “gaffes” to their advantage? Shirley, someone on the Mitt staff can poke fun while tying the gaffes to what the obamanation has done to the Country…

Gohawgs on April 18, 2012 at 3:31 AM

I think that will come in the next few months, I didn’t think the Romney croud had it in them, but they seem to be on top of it. It will be a very interesting campaign season, and I’m not a Romney fan… but it seems to be better than McCain.

I had a friend, that when he was in Paris, tried speaking French to the hotel desk person. The desk person didn’t like his French, so he responded in English. My friend to this as an insult, so he started speaking German. The front desk person, then tried to communicate in French again, my friend just continued to speak in German.

uncommon sense on April 18, 2012 at 2:44 AM

I like this move, as well.

Yes – my friend has got me in plenty of trouble.

And I had no idea why the Dane’s were acting like such pansies. You’re right, Denmark is not exactly the Mojave. Maybe it was because they were cyclists. Rain harshes their mellow – you know…

I’m with you but if they show some fight I’ll be right there. Sad thing is, all this crap about Obama was out there and maverick flamed out—-and strictly due to pilot error. He even had a good wingman and still cheesed.

I’m with you but if they show some fight I’ll be right there. Sad thing is, all this crap about Obama was out there and maverick flamed out—-and strictly due to pilot error. He even had a good wingman and still cheesed.

arnold ziffel on April 18, 2012 at 3:41 AM

McCain, actually thought he could, hate to use it, “Stay above the fray” and run a fairly clean campaign. I respect the old guy for having morals, but that is not the way the political world works anymore. Obama, sucker him with his talk about not getting dirty. I think Romney and his peeps, at least know what they are dealing with. That and how do you run the 2012 campaign for 0 on his record? The one has nowhere to hide, and his people are tostupid to do really good research.

Hope you are right. Obama can’t run on his record. A couple of days ago I saw a post, I think HA where the question posed was what company advertises about how bad the other guy is rather than touting their own virtues?

When will the brilliant Mitt team figure out how to use these obamanation “gaffes” to their advantage? Shirley, someone on the Mitt staff can poke fun while tying the gaffes to what the obamanation has done to the Country…

Gohawgs on April 18, 2012 at 3:31 AM

It’s still early and most people aren’t paying a lot of attention yet so Romney’s team might just be keeping the powder dry for now.

Exactly. the only thing the one has is to run a campaign of divide. I don’t think it will work, but the damage this jackwagon will do to the country will take many years, if ever, to undo. He is destroying the underlying fabric of our great society, just for his own petty chance to be re-elected. I understand most voters are sound bite voters, but I think the sounds bites will work to his disadvantage this time around, as he is the incumbent.

Night HA. Yesterday was a good day. Today will be as well. Something tells me the dems will be trying to plug their boat that hit the reef. Hopefully another wave will hit it. Bichon Frise stir fry mmmm.

If I could get one message to the Romney camp – don’t back down on your support of the Arizona immigration bill. Continue to tout that as a model. This will move you away from the GOP estab and put distance between Romney and the McCain/Bush wing of the GOP. Hence, increasing his popularity among conservative swing voters. A block of voters which is bigger than people think. DD

We had a Dachshund when I was a kid, and not in the way that Obama did. They are ballzy little creatures, ours wouldn’t back down to our Great Dane. I now have another ballzy little dog and comic… I luvs me my Pug.

uncommon sense on April 18, 2012 at 1:24 AM

dachshund were bred to go down a hole after a badger ….
you gotta have ballz to do that …
really good dogs ….